What Ice Cores Reveal – A Journey Through Frozen Time
You’ve probably heard about climate change hundreds of times, right?
Well, this time the question is a little different than usual: Is climate change really happening? And if yes — how do we know that? What are the key factors connected to it?
And how does the ice in Antarctica help us understand the whole issue? Let’s find out!
Warm up
Try to think about this:
How can ice give us information about climate change?
Don’t worry about being right or wrong —
just share any idea that comes to your mind!
Learn
Dive in 1
Well done!
Now use the Climate Trends learning tool
Find a time period within the past 800,000 years when the Earth transitioned from an ice age to an interglacial period.
- Click on “Calculate slope”
- Choose “temperature”
- Use the slope tool to find the rate of temperature change
→ Select two points: one at the start, one at the end of the transition
Now reflect with your buddy:
Why might the climate change happening today be different from the temperature changes that happened in the past?
Dive in 2
Until about 250 years ago, the highest recorded rate of temperature increase was about 0.003 °C per year.
In the past 10 years, the rate has been around 0.017 °C per year.
● For each of these two rates — historical and current — how many years would it take for the temperature to rise by 1 °C?
Now reflect with your buddy:
What does this tell us about the way climate change is happening today compared to the past?
Create
What now?
How should we respond to the challenge of human-made (anthropogenic) climate change?
Write an article together with your buddy!
In your article, give at least two ideas for each of these three groups:
● Governments
● Communities
● Individuals
Use some of the information from this unit to support your arguments.
You can also add pictures or videos — just make sure they’re free to use (check the copyright).
When you're done, upload your article to the platform!
Reflect
A simple change you can make:
Buy locally grown food.
Other actions:
Buy food with less packaging and reduce how much animal products and highly processed food you eat — these foods need the most processing and cause the most greenhouse gas emissions.
Is that something easy for you, considering where you live?
Talk about your thoughts and feelings with your buddy, share your ideas for the future — and then create your postcard!
Download the free KIDS4ALLL app and your wish comes true!
